


Where Do You Think You're Going?

by Summerwolf



Series: Whumptober 2020 [5]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Awesome Tony Stark, BAMF Tony Stark, Emotionally hurt Peter, Gen, Human Experimentation, Hurt Peter, Kidnapping, On the Run, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Peter Parker Whump, Peter is an experiment, Peter is on the run, Precious Peter Parker, Protective Tony Stark, Running Away, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Whumptober 2020
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-05
Updated: 2020-10-05
Packaged: 2021-03-07 19:20:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,779
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26832823
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Summerwolf/pseuds/Summerwolf
Summary: Whumptober day 5 - On the run, rescue---Peter knew that he shouldn't be doing this. If one of his handlers caught him then he would be in for a world of pain. Possibly even worse than that. He'd never tried to escape before, but he'd seen what happened to some of the other experiments when they tried to run.To put it simply, they had never tried again.
Relationships: Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Series: Whumptober 2020 [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1946926
Comments: 2
Kudos: 132
Collections: Whumptober 2020





	Where Do You Think You're Going?

Peter knew that he shouldn't be doing this. If one of his handlers caught him then he would be in for a world of pain. Possibly even worse than that. He'd never tried to escape before, but he'd seen what happened to some of the other experiments when they tried to run.

To put it simply, they had never tried again.

And maybe that should have been a lesson to Peter, enough to tell him not to even try it. It wasn't like he had anything to run to, he’d been at the facility for long enough, and they had changed him enough, that he’d never even dreamed of returning to the place he used to call home. He didn’t even know how long he’d been gone! It could have been anytime between less than a year and over a decade, and he had no way of knowing. He still felt like the ten year old they had swiped from the street, maybe a bit more dazed, and definitely more traumatised, and probably a lot more mature - you couldn’t mess around in the facility, not if you wanted to avoid being punished, and they all wanted to avoid punishment - but he couldn’t imagine himself being anything but who he had used to be.

Oh no.

What if it  _ had  _ been a decade. Or even longer?

What if he wasn’t actually ten years old? What if he was an adult now? What if he burst through the tree line - if he even made it that far - and found a completely different world to the one he left behind?

Peter could feel his panic rising quickly, trying to choke him and trip him and stop him before he even got the chance to find out if it really was true. 

It didn’t matter, Peter decided, it didn’t matter if it had been a year or ten years or twenty. It didn’t matter if he didn’t recognise a single part of the world he found, it didn’t even matter if he didn’t even recognise himself. He was not staying at the facility. Even if he never escaped the forest, if they found him before he could get far enough away, then at least he would have tried. If he was going to be trapped there, then he wouldn’t stay without a fight. If this earned him a fate worse than death, then at least he would have gone down swinging. 

The far off whirl of sirens, only audible thanks to the super hearing that  _ they  _ gifted to him, was enough to send a new wave of energy crashing through his muscles. He would run till he collapsed, and then he would crawl a bit more, and they would regret the day they stole Peter Parker off the streets of Queens.

He was not Experiment 012. His name was Peter Parker, and he was getting out of here.

\---

Everything hurt before he’d even started seeing the light on the other side of the forest. He’d known it was huge, had been told by the small number of other experiments who had tried to run and had only been given a black mark rather than whatever everyone else got - they were too valuable to get rid of, but the handlers always found a way to stop them from trying to run again - about how large the forest was, about how it was impossible to get to the other side before anyone caught you unless you had super speed.

Peter didn’t have super speed. He had many powers, but speed actually wasn’t one of them. He was sticky, and his senses were enhanced, and he was pretty strong too, and all he could hope was that they were enough to get him through.

The main reason that he knew he would get away, get to the other side and be long gone before the handlers found him, was that he had no other choice. If he failed, then that was it. And okay, sure, he didn’t even expect to get this far, to be able to see the blue of the sky if he craned his neck enough, but he’d decided it was worth the risk and so far it had definitely paid off.

He couldn’t hear any dogs anymore, or any footsteps at all, but he didn’t let it trick him. Just because he couldn't hear them didn’t mean that they weren’t there, ready to take him back as soon as he let his guard down. He wouldn’t be safe until he was far away, preferably in a different country, or at least when he wasn’t alone anymore.

He ran faster, desperate to get out of the forest. Desperate to get over that first hurdle.

The air was burning his throat in a way that was painful, yet strangely exhilaration, his legs ached bone deep, a feeling of overexertion that he hadn’t felt in such a pure way in what felt like forever, the soles of his feet cut to ribbons as he pushed himself harder.

Everything hurt, but it was a pure hurt. A hurt caused from pushing too far, and testing his body's limits and going over them because he had no other choice. It was nothing like the pain he had been feeling for years, and that made it okay.

Being free meant being alive, and being alive meant pain, and Peter was okay with that.

He would suffer for the freedom getting away would grant him.

\---

Darkness was just starting to fall when he came across a lonely thatched cottage. He’d left the forest behind a while ago, back when the sun was still high enough to blind him when he burst through the treeline, and the rough concrete ground had been even worse to his feet than the forest floor had been.

He’d only realised a bit ago that he wasn’t normal anymore, and even if the world was the same, he wasn’t and would never be. What if he couldn’t fit in? What if he’d risked everything to get away, only to get sent straight back like the experiment he was?

He ground to a stop, tears starting to fill his eyes as panic stole his breath. What if all of this was worthless? What if he was ridiculed, laughed at, attacked? What if after everything that happened, it turned out that his life really had been better at the facility?

“Hey? Are you okay?” There was an unfamiliar voice right next to him, sounding deafening to Peter as it bounced through his skull.

Somehow, despite everything else that had happened already, that was the straw that broke the camel's back. Or, to be technical here, the thing that overwhelmed the Peter.

\---

The next thing Peter knew he was lying in a twin bed, in an unfamiliar room. For one terrifying moment he thought he'd been caught, and this was the start of the fate worse than death, but he wasn't restrained in any way, and the bed was way too comfortable to be a facility bed. Those matrices had always felt harder than the stone floor, while this one was more comparable to a pile of fluffy pillows. Peter almost wanted to just sink back into the warmth and comfort, and drift back to sleep, but he was on the run, and thinking that he was safe just because he was comfortable might just end up being the mistake which leads to him being caught.

And he was not going to risk that being the truth.

With a couple of steadying breaths, Peter stood up and snuck out the room. The sun had clearly set while he was asleep, but the cottage was lit with steady burning candles, and he could see someone sitting in front of the flickering fire, fiddling with what looked like some sort of high tech armour.

"Ah, you're awake!" the man said without looking around, a smile audible in his voice. "I was a bit worried when you just collapsed. Are you okay?"

Peter's words stuck in his throat, leaving him gaping at the man's back for what was probably at least a minute, trying to figure out what on earth could be going on.

"What- where- who are you?" Peter finally managed to get out. The millions of questions bubbling under the surface flooring out in a jumble.

"My name is Tony," the man answered, twisting round to grin at Peter, his eyes alight with an emotion Peter couldn't remember seeing since he was taken by the facility. "I own this house. Are you okay?"

"Umm, yeah, I just- how long have I been here?"

Tony seemed to think his answer over for a moment before he finally answered, "almost an hour. Why?"

"Oh no," Peter whispered, his brain frantically trying to figure out how likely it was that his handlers would have given up, and how likely it was that they would bust through the door any moment.

"Hey, it's okay. What's going on? If you tell me I'll be able to help you."

Tears welled up in Peter's eyes, and even though he knew he shouldn't, he found himself spilling his entire story. Including what he was running from, and what had been done to him.

The fire was starting to die by the time he had finished, his chest heaving and tear tracks streaking his face. Tony looked just as affected, his eyes wide and filled with pain as he stared at the boy in front of him.

"How long were you there?" Tony asked, his voice cracking as he reached out and gently rubbed Peter's arm, the gentle touch surprisingly calming.

"What year is it?"

"Twenty twenty."

Peter sucked in a shocked breath, his lungs stuttering in shock. "Eight years." was all he managed to croak out.

It had been eight years. Eight years since he was taken. Eight years since he'd last been free.

"They're not taking you back." Tony announced, his eyes stormy as he pulled his phone out and started furiously typing. "I have some friends, a place we can go that is far away from here. We will protect you, and hey, you never know, maybe we can teach you to enjoy your powers as well. Use them for good, even if you did get them through the bad."

"Really?" Peter asked, barely able to believe this was real. Tony wanted to help him? Protect him? And he wasn't appalled by his powers?

"Really." Tony nodded once, squeezing Peter's arm. "Don't worry, we'll keep you safe."

And for the first time in what felt like forever, Peter knew that it was the truth.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading!! I hope you enjoyed!!  
> Comments and kudos make my day!!  
> I hope you have an awesome week!!


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